The Radicalization Risks Of GPT-3 And Advanced Neural Language Models

In 2020, OpenAI developed GPT-3, a neural language model that is capable of sophisticated natural language generation and completion of tasks like classification, question-answering, and summarization. While OpenAI has not opensourced the model’s code or pre-trained weights at the time of writing, it has built an API to experiment with the model’s capacity. The Center

NATO Science for Peace and Security-funded Advanced Research Workshop on ‘Terrorist Use of the Internet: Assessment and Response’

A NATO Science for Peace and Security-funded Advanced Research Workshop on ‘Terrorist Use of the Internet: Assessment and Response’, jointly organised by VOX-Pol and the University of Swansea’s Cyberterrorism Project, was hosted at Dublin City University from 27 – 29 June, 2016. The invitation-only workshop provided an opportunity for the 60 participants which included academics,

Three steps to talking to a loved one at risk of being radicalised into rioting

Anthony English, The Open University For some, the shocking scenes of violence which have erupted across dozens of locations in England and Northern Ireland will evoke an all-too-real concern – could someone close to me get involved in the violence? Alongside those directly affected by the act of rioting itself, there are another set of

Middle-aged radicalisation: why are so many of Britain’s rioters in their 40s and 50s?

Sara H Wilford, De Montfort University Look closely at the pictures of the violent unrest that has spread across England and Northern Ireland and you will notice something that is not being spoken about. The rioters seen fighting, attacking police and setting fire to buildings are often middle aged – people in their 40s, 50s

Propaganda in focus: decoding the media strategy of ISIS

This investigation employs the analytical framework established by Braddock and Horgan to conduct a comprehensive content analysis of 79 official English-language propaganda videos disseminated by ISIS, with the objective of quantifying the thematic composition and the evolutionary trajectory of ISIS’s international media operations and propaganda machinery from 2014 to 2017. The findings reveal that a

Emotions & Belonging in Far-Right Social Media Space

By Jonathan Collins This blog offers a condensed version of a recently published article in Social Media + Society. To read the full version, click here. The increased participation within far-right alternative platforms (Alt-Tech) is generating significant attention from scholars interested in the community’s communication patterns and dynamics. Perhaps unsurprising for a movement seeking or

VOX-Pol Guest Lecture Series: Cross-Platform Approaches to CVE Online

VOX-Pol Guest Lecture Series, Spring 2023 Speaker: Dr. Erin Saltman Title: Cross-Platform Approaches to Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism Online Outline: This presentation reviews advances in cross-platform solutions advanced through the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). GIFCT was founded in 2017 by technology platforms to give structure and support for countering terrorism and

Misogyny, Misandry and (Online Cult) Leader: The Daily Emails of Andrew Tate

By Elizabeth Pearson Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is now a national emergency. A new report by the UK National Police Chiefs’ Council this week noted VAWG-related crimes increased by 37% between 2018 and 2023, with male perpetrators ever younger. Much is technology-related, and police chiefs noted young men are being ‘radicalised’ into misogyny

We research online ‘misogynist radicalisation’. Here’s what parents of boys should know

By Steven Roberts, Monash University and Stephanie Wescott, Monash University Many parents are worried about their children using social media. But these concerns tend to focus on privacy, exposure to explicit material or contact with strangers. As researchers looking at sexism and misogyny in Australian schools and the influence of social media, we think it